Necessity is not the Mother of Invention

It has been a cliche that my friends and family have kept low expectations of me during weekends. Through the years, it has been imprinted in their minds that I am in hibernation during weekends and disturbing me with phone calls will invite situations.

During childhood, the upbringing and the environment forced me to believe that laziness is a sin. Be it at school or home or social gatherings, lazy people were always considered a burden to the World. The numerous sayings in English and Malayalam degraded laziness and made it into the list of childhood nightmares. There was so much societal pressure to make sure that nobody calls me lazy.

So, there is a story which was popular both at school and home.

Once upon a time there lived a man in a far away village.He was hardworking and he owned a donkey,a lazy donkey. The man was unhappy with the donkey. Daily, he took the donkey to the market and tied sacks of salt on it. Carrying sacks of salt across the river was a terrible job for the donkey. One day, while crossing the river, the donkey fell down into the river. After getting up, it realized that the sacks weighed lighter. Upon reaching back home, the donkey felt good. So, next day the donkey purposely fell down into the river and got back home again feeling good. Now, let’s stop the story here before the man teaches the donkey a lesson. Lessons are boring!

Yes! the society narrates this story and makes us feel that laziness is a dreadful deed.

But, do you know the flip side?

It kills the creativity that is born out of laziness. Nobody has taught us that the donkey was clever enough to find a solution to his burden.He found a way to be happy in his life.

Let’s think this way : We were lazy to walk long distances, so we invented vehicles;we were lazy to wait for hours to cook a bowl of rice, so we invented cooking utilities;we were lazy to do our jobs,so we became filmmakers, photographers, and writers; we were lazy to call a person,so we invented texting, and the list continues.

Now look for moments when you had done something creative,something different,something simpler, and something happier. Now, think deep. Didn’t you do it because you were lazy to do something else?

It took two decades for me to realize the power of laziness.

Remember the quote from Mr. Bill Gates?

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

He makes sense because I have noticed that I have always found a simpler solution to beat a problem/challenge/situations/deadlines.

I am sure all lazy people will show thumbs up to this.

So, let me conclude this way. It is not necessity who is the Mother of invention,

Laziness is the Mother of Invention.

PS : I was lazy to think about a topic to write, so I decided to write about laziness.

Man of the House : If laziness is the Mother of invention, then who is the Father?